Leah's bedding

This is not really a "tutorial" kind of blog, and I'm not sure I have much to "tutorial" about, but it's a blog about my life, and this has been a huge part of my life for the past couple of months, and to be honest I'm kind of proud of how it turned out.

Backstory: we live in a 2-bedroom apartment. We are about to have baby #2. We are moving this summer to a bigger place, but in the meantime we've got a lack of space (or at least a lack of partition) making bringing in an additional child (especially a newborn) slightly problematic. So Bryan and I decided to get a mini crib for our bedroom for Leah.

I have always been intrigued by the idea of making baby bedding - it seems like it's not terribly difficult (a lot of straight seams, etc) as long as you can get the engineering right. Add to that the fact that mini crib bedding is super hard to find, and I couldn't find anything I loved, and there you have it. I decided to make Leah's bedding.

So... here it is:
(bumpers and blanket)

(crib skirt - taken prior to the bumpers being finished)

I love the pink, the mix of patterns and textures (that's chenille at the bottom of the skirt - it's also on the reverse side of the bumpers) and the elephants marching around the crib!

A friend of mine convinced me (thanks, Ro!) to take pictures at every stage. I was way better at this at first, apparently - I have no pictures of the actual process of making the bumpers, which was the hardest part, but oh well. Here's roughly how I did it:

Step 1: gather materials
(not pictured: four zippers, piping, thread, etc).

Step 2: make bumper forms (for regular-sized cribs, you can buy these. For a mini crib, you either have to make them or buy bumpers and use them as forms - making them was far more cost-efficient).

I used a layer of foam wrapped in batting, and stuffed into muslin. All extremely cheap at the fabric store around the corner from work, but quite awkward to navigate with on the T.

First I measured how big I wanted the bumpers, and then subtracted a little from the height to account for the batting, and then cut the foam.

I enlisted Bryan to help me wrap the foam in batting.


I measured the circumference (?) of the forms using a measuring tape, added for seam allowance on length and width (I used 1/2" seam allowance for everything - I think it was great because it was so forgiving), and then cut, pinned, sewed, and stuffed the muslin. Sorry I don't have a final picture of the bumper forms! I promise, they look just like the picture above except brown...

I suppose you could skip this step, but I wanted the bumpers to be easily washable, and re-stuffable. (That's also the reason I put in zippers on the bumper covers).

Step 3: Crib skirt. SUPER easy, but makes a big impact. First I cut all of the pieces to the size I wanted. This ended up being a 2-step process, because I measured the first time all the way from the bottom of the mattress to the floor and didn't like the way it looked like that, so I re-measured and took off a few inches from the top layer.

(this is pre-second cut).

Basically, pin and sew the pieces together, iron the seams (!!) then hem the sides. I used muslin for the under-the-mattress part, and that worked quite well. (My one tip here would be to make the muslin a little smaller than the size of the mattress - this will ensure that the muslin doesn't end up showing. I didn't do this and wish I had).

Step 3: Bumpers. This is by far the longest, most tedious process.

Make the ties - I remember looking at patterns and tutorials for making bedding online and it seemed like everyone used ribbon for ties. I didn't like that look very much and I couldn't figure out why. Now I know. Making ties is SUPER time-consuming. I spent two evenings just doing this! It involved cutting the fabric, ironing the seam allowances in, and then sewing on the outside of the fabric (no way was I going to turn them inside-out; I tried one that way and totally lost my patience). And I had to make sixteen. But they turned out really cute, totally worth it.


Then I made the piping - measure around the piping form, add 1" for seam allowance, and use a zipper presser foot to sew right up on the edge. (I didn't take any pictures of this step... sorry... this is where it started to get spotty...)

Next I cut all of the pieces for the bumpers, and tried to figure out how to insert invisible zippers. I ended up just following the directions on the package, and that was smart. Then I sewed all of the sides, including the piping seam allowance in the top seam allowance (does that even make sense? I'm tired) and inserting the ties along the side seams. The hardest parts about this were (1) making sure that I got the seam right on the edge of the piping form again, and (2) making sure there were no "holes" around the top and bottom of the zipper. I had to go back and fix three out of four of the bumper covers when I was done for one or both of these issues.

Ultimately, though, I think it looks pretty cute:

And the bumpers passed Eden's inspection (she calls them "We-ah's pillows"):

I should also say, step zero, I guess, was making the blanket (this was extra, obviously, and I did it before I started the rest of the bedding). I used this tutorial on YouTube. It took forever and a ton of yarn (I would probably use a bigger needle next time) but it was very, very easy. And it's going to be super warm for our little winter baby.

I have grand ideas about making a mobile using the parts from Eden's mobile, and possibly a Boppy cover (curved lines?? What??), but for now I feel good that Leah's bedding is finished. And I'm glad it turned out cute. It was a lot of work, but she's worth it!